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Article
Publication date: 3 January 2017

Roman Veresha

This paper aims to consider the problems related to criminal legal characteristics of the crime objective and to analyze specific features of the crime objective as the subjective…

721

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to consider the problems related to criminal legal characteristics of the crime objective and to analyze specific features of the crime objective as the subjective aspect of crime.

Design/methodology/approach

Research methodology used in studying the criminal legal characteristics of the crime objective was based on the dialectical method of scientific cognition of the social and legal phenomena, its laws and categories. The author used general scientific research methods, systematic, historical, logical and functional, and observation, analysis, comparison and the empirical sociological method.

Findings

Definition of the crime objective as one of the subjective aspects related to the socially dangerous act will be helpful to detect the real causes of crime and to apply the right type and term of punishment. The crime objective should be understood as the important, well-defined features of conscious mental image of the future desired result, which determines the orientation and order of various actions aimed at crime commitment.

Originality/value

The paper substantiated the need to determine crime objective as one of the signs of the subjective aspect of crime. This will reveal the real causes of crime and apply the right type and term of punishment. It was established that the crime objective was a psychological phenomenon, and the question of its analysis and study had to be settled with regard to psychology and criminology, which will influence its cognition. The paper provided a definition of crime objective. Based on a scientific approach to the theoretical definition of the objective in the criminal law and the place in the subjective aspect of crime, the author presumed that crime objective had to be regarded as an optional feature of the subjective aspect of crime.

Details

Journal of Financial Crime, vol. 24 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1359-0790

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 January 2021

Ashley N. Hewitt, Eric Beauregard and Jonghan Sea

Early classification systems of fire setting have suffered from several limitations, including the lack of empirical validation and the focus mainly on the offender motivation…

Abstract

Purpose

Early classification systems of fire setting have suffered from several limitations, including the lack of empirical validation and the focus mainly on the offender motivation behind this type of crime. More recent research shows that looking at the crime scene behaviors may present a more fruitful approach for helping to solve fire setting offenses. The purpose of this study is to advance current scholarship by developing a new typology of fire setting based on the combination of offender motive and crime scene behaviors.

Design/methodology/approach

Latent class analyses were used with a sample of 134 fire setters who committed 275 arsons from the Korean National Police Agency to identify distinct fire setter motivations and crime scene contexts. Chi-square and crosstabulation analysis were then conducted to determine whether crime scene behaviors were associated with distinct offender motives and vice versa. Lastly, to improve the external validity of each of the latent classes, chi-square analyses were performed using variables related to the fire setters' criminal history, sociodemographic characteristics and arson classification.

Findings

Five motive subtypes were identified as well as five distinct crime scene contexts in which serial fire setting occurs. A significant association among these classes suggests that it is possible to infer fire setters’ motive from crime scene behavior and vice versa.

Originality/value

This comprehensive typology of fire setters has potential for profiling of unknown offenders as well as for suspect prioritization in police investigations.

Details

Policing: An International Journal, vol. 44 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-951X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 July 2016

Frederic Compin

Financial criminals commit crimes with such disconcerting ease that economic and social stability is threatened. Armed with intangible knowledge and backed by legal, financial and…

1745

Abstract

Purpose

Financial criminals commit crimes with such disconcerting ease that economic and social stability is threatened. Armed with intangible knowledge and backed by legal, financial and accounting expertise, criminals use their intellectual weapons to carry out their activities with impunity by operating in extra-territorial spaces such as tax havens. The purpose of this paper is based on interviews with key figures in the French judiciary and also French tax officials.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey in the form of semi-directive interviews was conducted from March to July 2012 with auditors, judicial magistrates and a representative of a large trade union of the French Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry. Questioning this panel of persons from different but associated horizons enabled the collection of practical, technical and professional information on how they perceive acts of financial crime in the practice of their mission.

Findings

It was possible to observe that financial crime is motive-driven and develops in specific spaces and contexts, aided by informational weapons.

Research limitations/implications

By promoting both financial optimisation and tax minimisation, non-cooperative territories provide the perfect breeding ground for innovative minds to distort social norms which uphold equal tax treatment and a common effort. Financial information is the recurring theme throughout, allowing ever more cunning offenders to distort the value of words and the meaning of economic results.

Practical implications

The ease with which financial crimes are committed remains striking. Understanding the reasons why financial criminals appear to enjoy relative impunity requires questioning the magistrates and actors involved in the combat against financial crime. The interviews conducted with these key players show that financial crime develops and flourishes on the basis of a threefold specificity: a specific motive linked to absolute enrichment without economic foundation, diffuse and imprecise spaces where economic crimes proliferate with total impunity and an intangible weapon in the form of financial information.

Social implications

The private appropriation of financial information leads to the misappropriation of public goods and its capture by private operators, thereby depriving the community of a source of knowledge and expertise.

Originality/value

This paper is based on interviews with key figures in the French judiciary and also French tax officials. A survey in the form of semi-directive interviews was conducted from March to July 2012 with auditors, judicial magistrates and a representative of a large trade union of the French Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry.

Details

Journal of Financial Crime, vol. 23 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1359-0790

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 9 December 2003

Klaus Mladek

This article seeks to recover and uncover the non-utilitarian excess (jouissance) in crime and punishment since Kant. Jouissance is sharply contrasted with Nietzsche’s account of…

Abstract

This article seeks to recover and uncover the non-utilitarian excess (jouissance) in crime and punishment since Kant. Jouissance is sharply contrasted with Nietzsche’s account of ressentiment. The latter is analyzed as the predominant sensation of our penal system which until today structures the subjects and institutions of punishment from within. Jouissance, on the other hand, is obscured in philosophies of punishment that attempt to account for the will to punish but ultimately fail to cover over the excess that constitutes penal theories and practices. Whether it is visible in Kant’s punitive fervor, in the exploration of perversion in de Sade and E. A. Poe, in theories of deterrence and prevention or punitive convictions in our contemporary legal culture, Freud’s discovery of a realm beyond the pleasures principle remains crucial for the understanding of the motives for crime and punishment. The essay concludes with a discussion of Nietzsche and his exploration of the ramifications of recognizing the role of new affects in crime and punishment.

Details

Punishment, Politics and Culture
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-072-2

Article
Publication date: 11 May 2012

Petter Gottschalk

A conceptual framework for police deviance and crime has recently been suggested and presented by other scholars. This research attempts to test the framework empirically based on…

752

Abstract

Purpose

A conceptual framework for police deviance and crime has recently been suggested and presented by other scholars. This research attempts to test the framework empirically based on court cases where police employees were prosecuted and convicted.

Design/methodology/approach

The sliding slope in the conceptual framework was separated into two dimensions, motive and damage, respectively. Court cases were coded according to these dimensions.

Findings

Empirical results provide support for the framework by linking seriousness to court sentence in terms of imprisonment days to the sliding slope. However, further validation of the framework is needed.

Originality/value

It is useful to both academics and practitioners to have an organizing framework when considering police complaints and prosecuting police crime.

Details

International Journal of Law and Management, vol. 54 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1754-243X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 2012

Petter Gottschalk, Geoff Dean and Rune Glomseth

The purpose of this paper is to report from an empirical study of white‐collar crime in business organizations and to create insights into perceptions of potential offenders.

3486

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to report from an empirical study of white‐collar crime in business organizations and to create insights into perceptions of potential offenders.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey was conducted among chief financial officers in the largest business organizations in Norway.

Findings

The study identified financial misconduct by chief executives in the company as the crime associated with the most serious consequences for the company. A person in purchasing and procurement functions is assumed to be most vulnerable to and most likely involved in white‐collar crime.

Research limitations/implications

The survey focused on perceptions and threats rather than actual crime cases that might be included in future research.

Practical implications

Most vulnerable persons, including purchasing executives and chief executive officers, should never be left alone signing invoices and other expenditures on behalf of the firm.

Social implications

A four‐eye principle should be introduced in all business organizations in financial matters.

Originality/value

Chief financial officers' perceptions of vulnerability in top management create new insights into white‐collar crime.

Article
Publication date: 9 March 2010

Petter Gottschalk

The common survey instrument for police integrity consists of case descriptions that are mainly concerned with corruption. However, the diversity in police criminal acts calls for…

1142

Abstract

Purpose

The common survey instrument for police integrity consists of case descriptions that are mainly concerned with corruption. However, the diversity in police criminal acts calls for a revision of this survey instrument. Based on cases of convicted police officers in Norway, this paper aims to propose a new survey.

Design/methodology/approach

Content analysis of 57 court cases in Norway was carried out.

Findings

Rather than focusing mainly on police corruption, a diversity of police criminal acts was identified in the content analysis.

Research limitations/implications

Court cases in other countries should be analysed to improve the proposed questionnaire in future iterations. Rather than measuring police integrity only in terms of corruption, future empirical studies of police integrity should focus on the variety of police criminal acts found in court cases.

Originality/value

The paper focusses on an empirically based survey instrument.

Details

Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, vol. 33 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-951X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 May 2011

Eric Beauregard and Tom Mieczkowski

The purpose of this study is to identify factors in sex offenders that act to facilitate or inhibit confession to police. Moreover, it aims to assess possible interactions and…

1025

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to identify factors in sex offenders that act to facilitate or inhibit confession to police. Moreover, it aims to assess possible interactions and differences among factors related to confession specifically for child molesters and those who attack adult victims (rapists).

Design/methodology/approach

The authors use a combination of CHAID and conjunctive analysis to analyze interactions and factors significantly associated with confession to police in a sample of 624 sex offenders.

Findings

The study identifies several factors, as well as interactions among those factors, related to confession to the police. Moreover, rapists and child molesters present different factors related to confession, the former being more related to the criminal event as to the latter being more related to the offender characteristics.

Practical implications

The findings point to the conclusion that investigators need to pay careful attention to the type of victim when preparing the interrogation. Moreover, these crime event characteristics are readily observable factors that can improve the estimation of the likelihood of obtaining a confession. Finally, the several interactions identified confirm the complexity of the decision making leading to confession to police as well as the need to look at the factors in combination as opposed to individually.

Originality/value

This paper is the first attempt to apply a combination of innovative multivariate statistics (CHAID) and a qualitative technique (conjunctive analysis) to investigate factors leading to confession for two specific types of sex offenders.

Details

Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, vol. 34 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-951X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 January 2023

Bernhard Frevel and Philipp Kuschewski

The demands on the police to ensure security and order have increased in times of growing right-wing extremism, corona protests and widespread criticism of and dissatisfaction…

Abstract

Purpose

The demands on the police to ensure security and order have increased in times of growing right-wing extremism, corona protests and widespread criticism of and dissatisfaction with democratic structures and processes. Protection, escort or even confrontation in the course of public demonstrations and protests as well as the protection, e.g. of politicians, synagogues or mosques requires additional deployment of the police and poses extended challenges. However, the police force itself also faces various problems with antidemocratic, violent or extremist police officers. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate why and how civic education of police officers can be a cornerstone to respond to the described challenges and improve democratic policing.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper describes how civic education can be organized in police training and further education and how it can be designed in cooperation with civil society actors. It is based on a research and development project conducted between 2016 and 2021 under the title “Civic Education and Police.”

Findings

Civic education can or could be an approach in sensitizing police officers to social conflicts and in better understanding the background and reasons for their deployment. Moreover, civic education can be helpful in preventing abuse of power and police violence, reducing negative aspects of esprit de corps and strengthening police legitimacy.

Practical implications

Civic education of police officers can help to understand conflicts and social tensions, strengthen the understanding of the society, improve police investigation, reduce misbehavior and support legitimacy in the democratic state.

Originality/value

The article uses findings from the project Civic Education and Police, which was funded by the Federal Agency for Civic Education between 2016 and 2021. Project partners were the German Police University and the University of Applied Sciences for Police and Public Administration in North Rhine-Westphalia. The project conducted empirical studies on the supply and demand structure of civic education for and in the police. In addition, a database of educational concepts, a series of conferences and a new journal for conference documentation, research and special issues were launched.

Details

Journal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice, vol. 9 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-3841

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 June 2019

Alireza Rahrovi Dastjerdi, Daruosh Foroghi and Gholam Hossain Kiani

In accounting and finance, researchers have used many ways to detect manager’s fraud risk. Until now, many researchers have used some data mining methods in these two fields to…

Abstract

Purpose

In accounting and finance, researchers have used many ways to detect manager’s fraud risk. Until now, many researchers have used some data mining methods in these two fields to detect this risk. The purpose of this paper is to compare the precision of two data mining methods in detecting such a risk.

Design/methodology/approach

For this purpose, this paper analyzed the texts of board’s reports and used two methods including the convex optimization (CVX) method and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression method. In this way, the words of these reports, which have the greatest power in explaining the manager’s high fraud risk index, were identified. Using these words, this paper presented a model that could detect manager’s high fraud risk index in companies.

Findings

The results indicated that both methods can detect the manager’s high fraud risk index with a precision between 82.55 and 91.25 percent. The LASSO method was significantly more precise than the CVX method.

Research limitations/implications

The lack of access to an official and reliable list of firms suspected to fraud and the lack of access to the Microsoft Word (MS Word) file of board’s reports were two of the most important limitations of this study.

Practical implications

Regulatory bodies and independent auditors can consider the proposed methods in this study for assessing the fraud risk for a firm or other legal parties.

Originality/value

This paper avoided using merely financial statements data to detect the manager’s fraud risk index and focused on texts of board’s reports for the detection process. The capabilities of data mining and text mining methods for detecting the manager’s fraud risk index using board’s reports were tested in this paper. By comparing CVX and LASSO results, this paper indicated that methods with a binary-dependent variable have more power and are more precise than methods with continuous-dependent variables for detecting fraud.

Details

Journal of Applied Accounting Research, vol. 20 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0967-5426

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 4000